Read it through once

A state dinner followed this event and an evening Reception. The succeeding day a Royal review of forty-three hundred troops occurred, with twelve thousand spectators, and was followed by a luncheon to four hundred veterans of the South African and Maori wars, at which the Duke of Cornwall and York made one of the several _impromptu_ speeches delivered during his tour. Speaking of the combination of old veterans and young soldiers he said: "There is nothing like a chip of the old block"--to which some one responded with "You're one yourself"--"when one knows that the old block was hard, of good grain and sound to the core, and if, in the future, whenever and wherever the Mother-hand is stretched across the sea, it can reckon on a grasp such as New Zealand has given in the present." This speech evoked tremendous cheering. Later, the foundation-stone of the Queen Victoria School for Maori Girls was laid, and in the evening, after a state dinner at Government House, the Royal visitors attended a Reception given by the Mayor, and drove through splendidly illuminated streets. The next few days were spent amongst that most picturesque, gallant and chivalrous of native peoples--the Maoris. Expressions of the most intense and unaffected loyalty and contentment with British rule were universal. Most interesting sights were witnessed and Maori customs studied--including war and other dances, songs of welcome and of challenge to enemies, and mimic battles fought with native skill and zest.